Two municipal bus depots to open in Astana

16 april 2014, 15:26

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Photo courtesy of Turar Kazangapov

Astana Akimat (municipal authorities) aims to improve the quality of the public transportation and announced opening of two new municipal bus depots, Tengrinews reports citing the Deputy Akim (Mayor) of Astana Kanat Sultanbekov.

“There will be two municipal bus depots opened. Construction of the first bus depot is set to start in May and it will be opened in August. We plan to start the construction of the second bus depot in the second half of the year and finish it in April of 2015,” Kanat Sultanbekov said.

The Akimat signed a contract to purchase 350 new IVECO buses that run on gas. In the end of the year, it is planed to purchase 100 more buses.

“As of today, Astana’s public transportation serves 750 thousand passengers that makes 33 percent of the city's total population. The Akimat aims to bring the numbers to 970 thousand, or 47 percent of the population, by 2016 through increasing the quality of the service,” the Deputy Akim said.

The municipal authorities plan to introduce new routes developed by European company Typsa. Bus drivers will be trained at the Center for City Transportation Workers Training that opens on April 30, 2014.

At the moment, 8 companies are serving Astana’s public transportation. 7 of them are privately owned and service 50 routes. The city's bus depots have 890 buses with 734 buses running every day. But due to the growing population, there is a deficit of around 180 buses.